I mean covering the phone motherboard and parts with waterproof coating like what Kobo does with their Ereaders. It could help to reach higher IP ratings.
Maybe also sell this coating by itself so that after a battery replacement the waterproofing isn’t gone forewer
Good idea.. +1
Lets hope they will do that in the future..
The IP rating is already quite good for a rapairable device.
The benefit of a coated PCB doesent help, if the other modules are not sealed. Also precise coating is a challange in manufacturing and it is also needed to seal other parts, like the pigtails for the antennas.
That would decrease the repairability.
That brings me to the question of benefit and other querstions. How many boards died related to moisture? Is it worth the effort? Who would pay extra for higher IP ratings?
Conformal coating needs to be masked around all connectors, grounding pins, emf shield holes. It would not make sense to conformal coat a phone PCBA, you need to prevent water from getting into the assembly in the first place. There is a method of filling the entire device with a special gel, but it would cause all repairs to be super messy and ingress protection to be short lived.
On another note: The glue seals giving modern flagships their IP68 water resistance is only good on paper. It quickly degrades, 2 years down the road you absolutely do not want to submerge an IP68 phone. Read their warranties, they all exclude water damage for a reason.
Phones using o-ring or fitment seals don’t have that degradation issue, although they require cleaning and potentially lubrication on reassembly.
I used to take my iPhone with me into the pool, kept it on the side, played Sudoku in the jacuzzi…
Now i don’t do those things with my FP because of the lower ip rating.
I would pay extra for a higher ip rating… I would pay more for my FP because i’m used to iPhone Pro prices and as i’ve mostly been an Apple user my adult life i don’t look at “specs vs price” but more “experience vs price”… (english is not my native language so i hope it’s understandable)
Also those “coatings” are extra chemicals to the phone, typically “PFASS” family, that anyone who care about health and environmental sustainability, would like to avoid.
The sustainable way to make waterproof repairable and environment friendly phones is definitely the “o-rings” one.
Didn’t know that.. can imagine the “o-rings” way is harder when easy repairable like FP is now.
If Fairphone did a waterproof accessory case, people could buy it instead of the basic ones. This would let people get a waterproof phone if they wanted one, or have an easy-access phone if they prefer quicker access to change batteries etc. I would’ve thought this would be relatively cheap and easy way to make the FP range waterproof, but maybe FP don’t think it would be financially viable.
I like the idea of a waterproof case. I have one generic case and while I like it very much, it makes it impossible to turn off and turn on the device, nor using the fingerprint.
I hope future generations of fairphone devices will have higher IP rating.
Shiftphone is rated IP66, SHIFTphone 8 IP66 Zertifizierung | shift.eco, so I imagine some progress possible here. Unfortunately lack of my German skills allows me to follow this company only to a limited degree, so here are my main takes
I might one day do proper research on that but until that happens I would welcome any insight into what Shift did to achieve that IP rating.
They use rubber lips and after opening, IP rating isnt guaranteed anymore
Rubber seals are the most durable (~5 year) ingress protection and only need cleaning and lubrication during reassembly. The limited lifetime comes from the rubber slowly deforming over time. It lasts much longer than glue though.
The labyrinth seal in the FP6 doesn’t really have an expiry date, but it also doesn’t provide protection against static pressure (submersion).
There is no such thing as ‘guaranteed’ IP protection. An IP rating just means the manufacturer has had an equivalent unit tested, with ZERO guarantee or warranty once the device is in customer hands.
What they also need to work is proper seating, which cant be guaranteed by the company when a user opens it
There is no ‘guaranteed’, which is the entire misconception I was trying to explain.
Fairphone generally does not cover liquid damage, like the rest of the industry.
Section 9.1.2.2 Fairphone